Month: July 2018

As compared to the previous month, the subdued sales in Singapore for new residential launches by the month of June reflected 40% fall in home selling trends. Reports presented by Urban Redevelopment Authority reveal that buyers took around 654 new private residential units by June month that is 40.7% lower as compared to May and almost 20.2% lesser when compared to last year’s data; out of which, more than half of sales were conducted either Outside Central Region Zone or in the suburban areas.

If we also consider the 52 executive condominium units that were sold in the last month, total sale’s tally for developers in the month of June was 706 units that show around 43.9% fall from the previous month and 33.6% decline from June 2017. As per the preliminary estimates provided by URA in June month, developers somehow sold around 4090 private homes along with 1046 EC units during the first 6 months of this year. As compared to this, they were able to sell 6039 private homes with 2026 EC units during the first 6 months of the year 2017.

Considering the five most popular new launches of last month, the Oxley-led consortium moved by 107 units for development, Affinity at Serangoon ( with a median price of $1584/sq ft. On the other side, MCL Land at Margaret Ville sold around 121 units with a median $1,873/sq ft. Also, Wing Tai Holdings and Keppel Land at The Garden Residences were sold by 64 units with a median of $1662 psf in the month of June.

Head of the CBRE South-East Asia and Singapore, Desmond Sim observed that sales estimates sales at The Garden Residences and Affinity at Serangoon were subdued due to few potential reasons. Some of these include lack of connectivity to MRT, the proximity between these two projects, and influence maintained by new launch condo in the surrounding area.

Looking at the new cooling measures that are capable enough to alter last minute transactions, it is believed that July sales will surpass the total sales recorded in June month and it can be considered like the calm before storm. He also included that the total sales momentum in 2018 may ease to somewhere around 8000-10000 units.

The head of the research unit at Huttons Aisa, Lee Zee Teck recently revealed that many buyers were on hold from last month as they were interested to compare the projects for upcoming months before making the final decision while world cup was another distraction for the market.

You might be aware of the fact that the Thomson-EastCoast Line (TEL) section will open in the year2021 at Orchard MRT Station, butthe great news is that the work for passageway running below Orchard Boulevard is also inprogress so that commuters can enjoy uninterrupted transfers between TEL and North-South Line (NSL) platforms.

People have been concerned about the effects of the cooling measures taken by the Singaporean government. Experts believe that high-end property will experience the most effects of these measures. However, mass-market projects are on the safer side.

People who have been interested in buying or investing in Singapore Condominium are waiting for a decline in property prices. But, these cooling measures will not cause any such changes, at least not in the near future. There may be slight changes but expectations of major price changes are very low.

With the use of latest technologies by the Government, the maintenance and inspection of two million trees in Singapore parks, roads and gardens aregoing to be more efficient and rigorous in the upcoming 3 years. Considering one of the most common examples, the NParks or National Parks Board is testing an electronic tilt sensor that can help to detect leaning signs in mature trees. Note that this leaning can otherwise make the tree topple and unstable. But the sensor data can help the officers at NParks to take preventive measures to avoid the accidents.

Recently, the Government of Singapore introduced a few measures that have as main objective the cooling down of the increasing demand present on the property market (on both new launch condo and resale condo) of the country. The latest measure was to increase the stamp duty, especially in the case of property buyers that were looking to get their second or third property. Besides this, the loan-to-value ratios also became more rigid, all of these chances making property ownership more expensive than before. According to Augustine Tan, who is the president of Real Estate Developers’ Association of Singapore, these cooling measures are triggering a significant setback for the real estate market. The truth is that the new measures diminished the demand coming from foreign buyers and investors and, as Augustine Tan said, may have a detrimental effect on the trust shown so far from developers and investors.

The property cooling measures are showing a great impact on the marketfrom past few days, andSingapore banks are expected to receive huge benefits from this shift. Rating agency Moody’s recently revealed that if the property prices fall considerably by a large amount, it will reduce the speculative demand for the residential properties in the area.

Here is another proud moment for Singapore as it is a single non-European country that maintained its position in the top ten among countries compared for citizen well-being on a global level. Studies reveal that Singapore is at 7th position in this league table. The improvement is not only in this sector. Instead, Singapore has scored well for around 10 other areas including employment and infrastructure as well.

The great news for residents of Singapore is that it showed improved performance for almost all indicators on Asian averages; however, economic stability was the only factor for which it dropped position by 24 places as compared to the year 2009. Managing director and senior partner at Boston Consulting Group (BCG), Mr. Vincent Chin, recently revealed that this drop happened just because of the small open economy style of the country. Note that, during this annual study, the economic stability was accessed on the basis of three indicators: GDP growth volatility, inflation volatility, and inflation.
Mr. Chin said that the low score of Singapore in economic stability was derived by GDP growth volatility where it got 81 points out of 100. He mentioned that the impact of the small open economy on this factor could be explained in terms of the economic growth of the country along with the more pronounced business cycle fluctuations as compared to the countries that follow outwardly oriented and less economically open economy design.

Even the biggest property markets in Singapore have been going through a rather slow market ever since the cooling measures were introduced. Experts do not predict a complete downfall of the property market.

This situation has forced the both CFOs of CapitaLand Group and GuocoLand Group to question the acts of the government. Very recently, the government made some changes in the Additional Buyer’s Stamp Duty rates (ABSD). There was a 5-percentage-point increase for citizens and permanent residents who would be buying a second home. These chief financial officers (CFOs) are not sure if these steps were the right decisions.

Every year, the Housing Board provides a number of flats in order to meet the demands of homebuyers and give them the diversity they need. But, this year, the HDB decided to reduce the number of released BTO flats from 17,000 to 16,000. The 1,000 reduction was taken after it was noticed that the resale sector of the property market is catching up. This particular section of the market was in decline for quite a while, but, apparently, things are stabilizing, including the prices of resale homes.

Starting with the last half of 2016, this year is the first time when it was noticed an increase in the prices of resale apartments. This news came together with the HDB’s announcement to reduce their share of available BTO flats. This is not something new, as the HDB adjusts its offer according to how the market is evolving. According to the HDB board, the number of flats they release will be gradually decreased throughout the year, as the resale market will slowly start picking up the pace. Just how much things moved in the resale sector? As numbers show, there was a 0.1% increase in the prices of resale flats in the second quarter of 2018, in comparison with the first quarter of the year. But, even so, the prices are still lower than they were in the same period of 2017, more precisely 1.5% lower.

A couple of days back, the Singaporean government signed two agreements with companies that promise a technologically upgraded future. The signing of agreements took place at the World Cities Summit at Marina Bay Sands Expo and Convention Centre.

The New Tengah town is expecting a new energy management system that is a centralized cooling system. This project is being handled by The Housing Board (HDB) along with the SP Group. On the other hand, the town is being given a makeover in terms of integrated buildings alongside an open digital platform. This part of the update is the responsibility of the JTC Cooperation in cohesion with the ST Engineering department.

In a Thursday evening on 5thJuly 2018, the implementation of the new increased Additional Buyer Stamp Duty (ABSD) was announced. This new policy would soon take its effect on the 6thJuly 2018. Within an hour after the news surfaced, several developers of upcoming new launch condo announced that they would be releasing their units for sale on first-come-first-serve basis on the very same night. And buyers started rushing and forming long queues in the showrooms of within hours.

When demand is on the rise, usually the prices are driven up as well. Considering the fact that the demand for houses is continuing to rise in some Asian countries, including Singapore, special measures and policies have been adopted to break the inflation of prices in this sector. According to a report recently released by S&P Global Ratings, the monetary policies and measures meant to cool down prices have managed, so far, to keep house prices within acceptable limits.

Even though the rates of expansion for credits with a mortgage are lower than half a year ago, these type of credits is still taking place at a wide rate across the region. At the same time, the monetary policies remain mainly the same, which keeps mortgage rates low, even lower than before, easing the load for the people that get these credits out of the desire to have their own homes. Also, the specialists at S&P said that these measures suffered changes in time, so they are capable to do their job better. And they managed to do so, as the house prices in various regions around the Asian-Pacific area manage to remain within acceptable boundaries.

According to the index released recently, Singapore is now ranked as the top most innovative country throughout the world outside Europe. As per the Global Innovation Index, the country grabbed the fifth position, i.e., two places higher as compared to last year’s ranking, and it maintained top rank in Asia. If we look at the overall league table, with the first position of Switzerland, further ranks in the table are given to Netherlands, Sweden, and Britain in sequence. However, other names in the top ten’s list are United States, Finland, Denmark, Germany, and Ireland.

It is not a secret that those living in Sembawang prefer traveling to Yishun to get more affordable food or enjoy leisure activities like swimming. Well, in approximately two years, everything will change for the residents of Sembawang. In other words, the area is planned to be transformed into a modern community hub by the summer of 2020, which means that a wide range of facilities will become available. Thus, not in a very long while, Sembawang’s inhabitants will enjoy sports facilities, such as swimming pools, and a hawker center, just to name a few. The developments will occupy a 12ha area that will be conveniently located next to the Sembawang MRT station.

Even though there are some cooling measures in place right now for residential properties, these may very well be a sign that the investments go to other sectors. It seems that right now the retail investors which have a good capital outlay can very well go to the conserved shophouses and some offices. But there are other investors are going to the industrial market.